Napoli

It has been three years since Napoli made a huge double-edged statement in a bid to climb back to Italian football’s peak, and again they find themselves at a crossroads. In the summer of 2013, Rafael Benitez, fresh from success against the tide at Chelsea, and Gonzalo Higuain, looking for regular first team football after[…]

Barcelona’s Luis Suárez signed off with a hattrick against Granada to take his tally to 40 goals for the season. This meant that not only did he become the first player other than Ronaldo or Lionel Messi to finish as La Liga’s top scorer since 2009, but he also won the European Golden Shoe. For[…]

When Higuaín left Real Madrid in 2013, many critics said that he was making the biggest mistake in his career, and that it was a step back in his football life. Well, I can guarantee that those critics must now be ashamed of those words. The Argentinian is, by now, the most likely player to[…]

In the eight days between Inter’s 4-0 victory over Frosinone last weekend and Monday night’s trip to Napoli, Roberto Mancini would have devoted much of his time to coming up with a strategy to stop Mauricio Sarri’s in-form outfit from scoring. After 65 seconds at the Stadio San Paolo, those plans lay in ruins. It[…]

With a cigarette in his mouth, he observes from afar. The 56-year-old is forever a student to the game, taking the utmost care in each step he takes. A recent report from the newspaper Il Mattino explained he spends up to 15 hours per day involved in football related work. Aside from training his squad,[…]

He’s not very fast. He’s not great in the tackle. He’s not the most physical. But Jorginho is the heart of Napoli’s midfield at the moment, and his excellent performances have given the club a lift to fight for Italy’s top places. The Brazilian-born Italian arrived in Naples from Verona in January of 2014 and[…]

New Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri did not go down the usual route of making it to the top level of football management by being an ex-footballer. A bank manager until 2002, the 56-year-old brought his Empoli side to Serie A last season, making his managing debut in Italy’s top-flight. Sticking by his 4-3-1-2, which demands[…]

With the score level at 2-2, the ball was placed on the spot and fans huddled in together, holding their breath. What happened next would shape Napoli’s future, granting them either Champions League or Europa League football and individually, had the possibility of exalting Gonzalo Higuain to something of a higher figure in the crazed[…]